Hit and run
by Guinevere81
Summary: It seems to me that the worst thing that could ever happen to Robbie is watchining someone he cares a bout being hit by a speeding car.. that idea has been scrabbling around in my mind for some time and several possible stories have come tim mind... This is a space for my if James was ever hit by a car and Robbie saw it happen stories... whcih is proably completely indulgent.
If there is one phrase in the English language that has come to haunt Robbie Lewis it is 'hit and run'. After Val died it became the bane of his existence. Every time he hears it his heart aches and his stomach plummets. Yet he never actually imagines that he will ever see one first hand.

The first time he is witness to a hit and run there is no warning of squealing tyres or warning calls of 'look out'. They are just walking along the narrow pavement on the way from the bus to 'The Trout' when suddenly James pitches forward slamming into the ground and there is an almighty noise as an aluminium ladder bounces onto the street from the back of a trailer which along with the car and trailer carrying it is coming to an equally noisy stop in the street ahead.

The ladder must have been affixed to the trailer so badly it has come undone and stretching out across the pavement so that it could strike James as the car passed. Later Robbie will reconstruct this scenario in his head but right now he is aware of one thing and one thing only, James' prone figure on the pavement in front of him.

As a cop he should probably be taking the registration number of the car, be looking for who was driving but he can't even move because this is how she died isn't it, hit unexpectedly by a car as she walked along the pavement. James Jacket is torn and he isn't moving and all Robbie is conscious of thinking is not again…. Please God not again.

Then simultaneously there is a squeal of tyres as the car takes off, trailer bouncing along but leaving the ladder and James both lying in the street behind it and James groans and starts to move. Robbie is on his knees next to him in an instant.

'Bloody buggering arse that hurt.' James groans as he rolls over onto his side awkwardly trying to sit up. Robbie helps, placing an arm behind his shoulders to steady him and he doesn't know whether to laugh at the unexpected profanity or cry with sheer relief.

'Are you alright lad?' Robbie asks and he can hear his own voice break. Blood is dripping from James' chafed hands, his suit is ruined and he's grimacing uncomfortably as he moves.

'I'm fine.' James hisses and smirks slightly when Robbie's hand comes up to cup his cheek gently. 'Did you hit your head?' Robbie asks, his voice still thick with concern. James nose and right cheekbone look like someone's tried to peal a layer of skin off with sandpaper. They're chafed and raw and Robbie wonders if he's wrong in thinking that the angle of James nose is ever so slightly off.

'Yes, but not hard. It will probably bruise but I doubt I've got a concussion, just the one of you, promise.' James tries to grin at him and rubs his injured nose with the back of his hand. 'Ow!' he exclaims and to Robbie's terror blood starts to trickle down James chin from his nose.

'Oh God, I'm calling an ambulance.' Robbie cries, fumbling for his phone and tissues to help James avoid bleeding all over the pavement. He stuffs the tissues into James' bleeding hands and yells at the woman who answers his 999 call to hurry up.

'Do deed, just need a badroob.' James mumbled from behind the wad of tissues but Robbie won't have it. His heart is still racing a mile a minute and he doubts it will stop before he's had some very well qualified doctors check every inch of James.

'James, your hands are a mess, your nose might be broken, I don't look forward to seeing your knees going by the state of your trousers and I seriously doubt your back isn't hurting after getting struck by that thing. You need a doctor.' Robbie nods toward the ladder lying in the street and James blinks owlishly.

Robbie is trying to keep up a conversation with the woman on the phone at the same time that he chastises James and he knows he comes across as incoherent.

James meanwhile struggles painfully to his feet and limps the few steps over to where he can sit down on the edge of a bridge. Robbie Joins him, shrugging out of his jacket and draping it over James shoulders when he finds the young man is shivering.

James stares down at the hand lying in his lap while he desperately uses the other to try to stem the trickle of blood from his nose.

'It hurts…' James admits quietly, still not meeting Robbie's eye.

'Your hands hurt?' Robbie asks placing his own ones on top of James' turning them over to inspect the bleeding palms.

'No… yes… sir your hands.' James answers hesitantly. He hadn't meant his hands, then again they do hurt but that is irrelevant as he notices that his boss' hands are shaking badly. In fact on closer inspection the whole man is trembling like a malfunctioning metronome.

'Sir, are you okay?' James asks, wincing as he twists around to be able to look his boss in the eye. The man is shaking like an aspen leaf his face white as a sheet. 'Acute stress syndrome…' James mutters under his breath and despite the fact that it hurts to move he shrugs out of his boss' coat and drapes it over the man's back.

Robbie pushes himself off the bench shrugging out of the jacket James has returned. 'Jim don't… I'm not… I don't… you could have… she… I…' Lewis' attempt to communicate what he is feeling is desperately incoherent and as he stands up he finds his head spinning uncomfortably and his knees buckling.

'Sir, don't' James grunts as he tries to push to his feet to aid his boss. He manages to catch the man around the middle to halt his descent to the pavement as Lewis' knees give way. Unfortunately pain shoots through his back and chest as he is jerked forward and they both topple to the ground.

Once the ambulance crew arrive they are surprised to find two victims rather than just one as reported.

The young blond man is clearly injured and bleeding and even though he doesn't seem to be aware of it Robin suspects that he probably has both a broken nose and a broken index finger and his left arm is certainly dislocated if it isn't broken. Further more he claims that the puddle of vomit next to his unconscious friend is his which is worrying but he is at least on his feet.

That is more than can be said for the older man who though waking only seconds after Robin arrives is clearly in enough distress that they find they have to sedate him. If for no other reason because he is violently grabbing his friend's hand making the young man go entirely white and all but collapse as his broken finger is twisted and compressed.

All in all Robin is relieved she has her colleague with her. Marlene is much more experienced she barks out orders, requesting a second ambulance and ensuring that the two men are separated and stabilised.

By the time the police and a second ambulance has arrived a kind of calm has settled. The older man is thoroughly sedated and settled onto the stretcher of the first ambulance with Marlene in attendance and Robin is sat next to the younger man who is stretched out on the ground, strapped onto a back-board and covered by a blanket after admitting to having been struck on the lower back and being in some considerable amount of pain.

The two constables called to the scene had gone all but hysterical when they found out that the victim or victims were police officers and apart from retrieving the ladder from the street they had spent the past five minutes on the phone relaying information to someone who was presumably their boss.

The moment the second ambulance arrives the first one takes off with the older police officer and one of the newly arrived medics and Robin is joined by a colleague she barely knows to attend to the younger of the two victims. He's already strapped onto a back board and into a neck brace so they get him in the back of the car and head off in the scope of a few minutes. Despite his initial protests Robin gives him a hefty dose of morphine when upon examination of his hand he goes completely white and throws up the non existent contents of his stomach again.

Six hours after the accident Chief Inspector Innocent turns up at the hospital to find two of her officers tucked up in adjacent beds. James is awake if somewhat groggy and in broken English he explains that despite both being in hospital he and his boss are fine…. Broken nose and finger and sedation notwithstanding.


End file.
